Ornua Foods UK has unveiled a new look for its Pilgrims Choice cheese range, in a move that features a greater use of colour, flavour descriptors and cheese imagery.
The dairy co-op said the revamp – which would roll out to stores from mid-June – would “further stimulate the emotional responses of consumers when it comes to eating cheese”. It would also deliver prominent standout at point of purchase, enable easier navigation of variants and increase “appetite appeal”, Ornua added.
The redesigned packs are described as a first step in “a bold new strategy” to grow Pilgrims Choice’s market share through responding to changing market dynamics and consumer behaviour.
They include colour-coded flavour profiles, alongside visual usage examples on pack, and follow consumer research by the brand to uncover “what inspires and hinders consumers when it comes to buying and consuming cheese”, Ornua said.
“The research was combined with an ethnographic study which identified what makes cheese-lovers tick, the emotional connection they have with cheese and the pure love for the flavour and taste it delivers,” it added. The research revealed that taste “always matters and that increasingly, when selecting a branded cheddar, consumers are looking to move away from bland, more mellow, middle-of-the-road offerings”.
With this thinking in mind, the brand’s “striking, new and more colourful pack design will call out the higher taste profile of Pilgrims Choice and, while retaining its premium positioning, seek to widen the brand’s appeal to command an ‘Everyday Exceptional Tastier Choice’ position in the market”, Ornua said.
The pack revamp will be supported by a major multichannel marketing campaign from mid-July that will focus on “engaging with the passion, love and enjoyment of consumers when it comes to eating cheese”.
It represents the biggest change to the Pilgrims Choice range since it switched to an oblong shape in September 2020, in a move that cut the brand’s plastic usage by 40%.
At the heart of the redesign was the brand’s “focus on tapping into the real emotions that consumers experience when eating cheese and owning the key driver, when they come to select what to buy, namely great taste”, said Ornua Foods UK brands director Kerry Alexander.
“With our new packs we aim to engender love at first sight between Pilgrims Choice and consumers looking for a taste sensation. They might not be able to taste our cheese on the shelf but the vibrant new design colours, flavour descriptors and mouth-watering cheese imagery will create a visual feast in the cheese aisle that will stimulate all the senses and leave shoppers salivating.”
It follows an announcement last week by rival cheddar brand Cathedral City about a switch to a new, side-opening mechanism which it claimed would save 40 tonnes of plastic a year.
No comments yet